3 Reasons Samsung's Latest Advertising Poking Apple Is So Smart

Last week Samsung extended its “The Next Big Thing Is Already Here” campaign to highlight the differences between the Galaxy SIII and the new Apple iPhone 5. Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it.

I believe this campaign works for three reasons:

It highlights differences people care about: Too often comparative advertising becomes a battle between two different brands so focused on the minute differences between them that they forget about why the differences matter to customers. In this campaign Samsung highlights real differences that smartphone users care about, like screen size and file sharing.

It uses humor to take the edge off the competitive attack: Apple did this successfully in its jab at PCs a few years ago. Dell did this well in the early ’90s when it compared its value proposition against Compaq’s. Humor helps people feel good about the brand that is making the attacks. Contrast this to the negative political attack ads that work at tearing down an opponent but don’t work to build up a candidate. Samsung has mastered the balance between humor and attack quite well in this campaign.

It doesn’t give Apple any mention: Many comparative ads that feature both brands often serve to build awareness and familiarity for the attacked brand and as a result often fail to accomplish the intended goal. Samsung is clever in how it makes the comparisons without showing Apple logos or using Apple’s name. Sure, everyone knows who Samsung is talking about, but the ads are subtle — and effective — in how they deal with the competition.

For brands considering the tactic of explicit comparative advertising, I believe emulating the three reasons above will make their campaigns much more effective.

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It seems as if it is targeting those that are already Samsung fans or Apple haters since disparaging a competitor and their customers is never a good strategy. Knocking one that you copied in the design of your phone (and lost to in a law suit) is even worse.

I totally disagree. The reasons the Samsung ad is so stupid includes: (1) it gives free advertising to Apple, which, if you have not heard, won a $1 Billion law suit against Samsung for copying the iPhone (even if the name is not mentioned the store, line, and ear buds communicate Apple), (2) Disparaging a competitor elevates them and lowers the perception of the detractor (this is why IBM will terminate an employee on the spot if they disparage a competitor) – especially when you are knocking the most valuable company in the world, (3) It puts down the very large audience that likes the iPhone (not a good way to convert users to your brand, (4) It knocks the company Samsung copied, which is really stupid, and (5) It drives away a good customer (Apple will find other suppliers). Also the Mac versus PC were similarly stupid, which is one of the reasons Apple had a single digit computer market share over the period most of those ads ram, but at least PC is a platform, and not a specific brand or product from an individual company. If it were, it would have just given free advertising to that brand.